The trip was a study abroad program offered through the department of Journalism and Technical Communications at Colorado State University. The program started in England, then moved from Belgium, to Holland, to Germany, and ended in France.

PART TWO

Belgium is a beautiful country graced with breath-taking architecture, quaint parks and open-minded people who have very down-to-earth attitudes. The transition from London to our second destination was very drastic, but very easy to make.

While in Belgium we met with Dr. Steve Paulussen, professor at Ghent University. Dr. Paulussen has done extensive research on Belgium media.

Paulussen believes there will be new trends in journalism, different from the way Belgium knows it today.

“The mind shift we are trying to make is that it we are not so much journalists anymore, but communicators,” Paulussen said.

This is a conversion that the United States has been perfecting over the past few years. For example, the Journalism and Technical Communication department at CSU has re-strung the program to gear students toward a multimedia communication focus, rather than solely technical journalism.

Though Belgium is a little behind the conversions being made in the rest of the world, Dr. Paulussen emphasizes the idea of ABJs.

“ABJs are All Platform Journalists. We are striving to get the younger students to be more cross-media minded. Right now it is difficult to find multicultural students,” Paulussen said. “Most who focus on print don’t know enough about online and vice versa. It makes it hard to offer some courses when students simply don’t want them.”

Paulussen has done research on online news for 10 years. His research shows that, in Belgium’s future, people will most likely not pay for news.

But there will be extensive conversion trends.

“News is going to be more about collaborations. I think companies are going to be more dependent on the freelance market because the mainstream isn’t paying well,” Paulussen said.

In the United States, the demand for freelance journalists has been on the rise, supporting Dr. Paulussen’s research.

The only way to survive may mean subsidies and funding from the government, potentially sparking ethical concerns.

“Now more than ever journalists need to be critical and transparent. We need to focus on professionalism,” Paulussen said.

Though the future of journalism is cloudy, one thing is certain: it is crucial for newspapers to make the online shift in order to survive. And the ones that don’t will most likely disappear completely.

While places like London, Paris and Frankfurt are making fast-paced moves to adapt to the future of technology and communication, Belgium doesn’t seem to be in any hurry. Is this a result of the laid-back, carefree attitude of the Belgium people? Does the lack of 24/7 cell phone use and technology help or harm Belgium? What does this mean for the future of communication of Belgium media? Will they make the transition?

Self-Reflection on the Quaint Country:

Travel journalists and economists argue that Belgium has possibly the highest quality of life, distinguished by their world records for high productivity and low poverty.
I experienced this high quality of life personally through Belgium’s excellent food, good beer, open-mindedness and overall good living.

The first thing we did upon arriving in Belgium was a Big Bus Tour of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. The city was drastically different than London. The architecture is Romanesque, the people are laid back and the media regulations are much more lax compared to the United States.

But the biggest difference between England and Belgium was the lack of pride for their royalty. It would be hard to visit London and not know about Queen Elizabeth and her grandsons. But in Belgium, the citizens have a lack of interest in the royal family. This may be because the people of Belgium make very little distinctions between classes and social status. It doesn’t matter if you are a rich banker or a blue-collar worker, Belgians allow everyone to obtain the same respect and privileges.

One highlight of Belgium was our day trip to Bruges, which is a very touristy town with a non-touristy feel. I was convinced that the citizens of Belgium have a much closer social distance compared to London and the United States. Very few people are on their cell phones, and are still very personally connected to each other.

Aside from the incredible waffles and chocolate, Belgium reminded me a lot of Fort Collins: quiet, quaint and filled with friendly people.

Our adventures in Belgium ended in Ghent, where we met Dr. Paulussen and three Ghent University journalism students – Khael, Dominique and Karen.

All three were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about American politics and culture. After talking to them, it was clear that they had very liberal yet grounding views on topics such as religion, socialism and homosexual rights. Their intelligence and composure opened my eyes to a lot of things that we, as Americans, can sometimes be ignorant.

Overall, Belgium ranks at the top of my list for countries to visit while in Europe. They have the right combination of food, beer, good people, laid back personalities and a shared love for life, which creates a peaceful atmosphere.

It was easy to understand why Belgium is economically and characteristically a rich country.

Stayed tuned for our travel adventures in Holland, which will be posted next week.

The trip was a study abroad program offered through the department of Journalism and Technical Communications at Colorado State University. The program started in England, then moved from Belgium, to Holland, to Germany, and ended in France.

PART ONE

The first leg of our trip was spent in London, England, where we met with Jack Starks of Orange Telecom. Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators and provides Internet, television and mobile services for over 131 million customers.

The strategy at Orange focuses on innovation, convergence and effective cost management. Keeping the customer in mind, Orange provides products that are user-friendly and simple in a fast-paced and ever-changing technological world.

Like many companies in the United States, Orange is making the switch to online resources to keep their company name toward the top of Google searches.

Starks is a member of the advertising team and works closely with the digital team, creating television ads, product placement and building social networking sites.

“Integration is the biggest buzzword right now. Social networking has taken off. Orange is definitely making the switch to online networking sites,” Starks said. “We are learning, like a lot of other companies, how to effectively advertise on the Internet. We have spent some money well and some poorly when it comes to advertising on the Internet.”

Recently in the United States, the switch to online media has been the trend for many companies. After talking to Starks, it seems London is right along side the U.S. in regard to switching, mirroring moves like integrating online networking and advertising.

Though the U.K. is thousands of miles away, the effects of new technology have posed the same threats and changes as they have in the United States.

Blackberries, iPods, Facebook and even using Facebook while on your Blackberry are used by people in London constantly while riding the Tube, walking to work, or sitting down to lunch. These characteristics are also commonly seen in daily life of U.S. citizens.

To some, the future of technology can be scary. But Orange wants to assure customers that “the future is bright.”

“We want to send the message of being optimistic about the future of technology. Don’t worry, we’ll keep it simple,” Starks said.

In a world that is constantly changing it is nice to know there are companies, like Orange, who value their customers and simplicity.

Personal Reflection on the Busy City:

London is full of contrast because of the amount of history and authenticity accompanied by new age shops, restaurants and entertainment. It is far from home but everything is only slightly different. They have the same stores with different clothing, the same physical appearance with different accents.

While in London, we did a lot of touristy things like wander around the city, take pictures and stop at every statue or monument. All of these aspects come with traveling to a new place, accompanied with feelings of frustration. Being a tourist of another culture can be exhausting and degrading at times, but it is the only way to encounter people and places and seek adventure in far-off lands.

The people in London were very busy and somewhat unfriendly, which is probably a product of most big and populous cities. Both men and women were dressed very fashionable and business professional. No woman was seen without her designer bag and sunglasses. I quickly realized that London is an expensive place to live, and if you can afford to live there, you can afford to keep up with fashion and flaunt it.

A highlight of London was visiting the Tower of London, which has been the seat of British government and living headquarters of monarchs, the site of renowned political imprisonment and is the current keeper of the Crown Jewels.

We toured the old castle grounds and saw prison cells, tombs and of course the Crown Jewels. After visiting the Tower of London, I realized that America is a teenager compared to our European Great-grandfather.

Other activities in London included visiting museums like The National Portrait Gallery, seeing Big Ben and taking the famous Big Bus Tour of the city. All of these activities were necessary in order to see as much of the city as we could in three days, but were a once in a lifetime deal. Let’s just say I could come back to London and do without the Big Bus Tour.

If you are looking for a quiet, quaint and relaxing European town, I would not recommend London. Though London was a memorable city filled with history and distinction, I would put it at the bottom of my list of the places we traveled to in Europe. London reminded me of New York City: a lot of people in small spaces, impersonal and dirty. However, I am very grateful that I was able to tour this city and witness its history first hand.

Stayed tuned for our travel adventures in Belgium, which will be posted next week.

Photo by Allison LeCain

At the age of five, someone walked up to Darren Mahuron as he was drawing a picture and asked him if he wanted to be an artist someday. He looked back at her confused and said, “I’m an artist now.”

Art has always been a passion for Mahuron, one that has influenced him from a very young age.

Mahuron had a babysitter starting at the age of four. She had a son, Mike Morris, who was a huge influence on Mahuron’s artistic life. Morris was a drawer at the time and is now a professional photographer. This shifted Mahuron’s artistic direction, too.

As a child, Mahuron was always more interested in drawing than schoolwork, but it wasn’t until 2004 that he became interested in photography. He taught himself how to use Photoshop, as he has always been very technology savvy.

“Photoshop felt very natural to me,” Mahuron said.

In January of 2006, Mahuron opened Summit Studios and branched into doing commercial art, which is his main focus now. He describes his style as commercial art with an artistic bend. In his artwork, Mahuron does not try to convey a particular message. His goal is simply to communicate with the viewer somehow, in any way possible.

“Art represents personality,” Mahuron said. “There are no walls up. You have to reach for it – [the meaning] is not just right there on the surface.”

With Mahuron’s photography, each shot is different. He doesn’t focus on one major theme for all of his works, though he does have a series of pieces based on the same idea. He said he doesn’t know where a lot of his ideas come from – they just pop into his head.

Though Mahuron might be considered an artist, he said he doesn’t like the typical artist persona. He focuses on making his studio not a “stuffy art environment”. He believes some artists would be down on him for doing something so commercial with his art.

“I do what I want to do,” Mahuron said.

Mahuron has two daughters, 8 and 10, and a wife who supports what he does fully. He often uses them in various photo shoots. He said his wife is a huge help when it comes to thinking of creative ideas.

The goal of Mahuron’s photography is to show things that make people stop and think. He wants the viewer to stop and get stuck on one photograph.

He succeeds in this by making his pieces so different from the norm. His photography ranges anywhere from two people robbing and blowing up a bank, to a young girl cutting off the hair of her baby doll, to a scared looking girl sitting in the middle of a lake, kept afloat by sitting inside an umbrella.

One of Mahuron’s most shocking photographs shows a family sitting in the middle of a forest at a dinner table. A young girl is cutting her hand with a huge knife as the mother uses the blood to paint a vase of white roses red. This type of style makes any viewer wonder what the artist is trying to portray.

“They should question something in themselves and their own thought process,” Mahuron said.

Photos below courtesy of Summit Studios

Standing 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing in at 110 pounds, she walks into the lounge of the Lory Student Center countering the weight of a bulky black shoulder bag, which looks like it weighs half as much as she does.

But don’t get the wrong impression.  If there is anyone who can shoulder a load, it’s Scott, who at 26 years old has shared lenses with some of the biggest names in the photography business, and has scaled up to 22,000 feet on and around Mount Everest as a photographic assistant to National Geographic cinematographer David Breashears.

“People shouldn’t follow a specific pattern,” Scott, a senior journalism major, says, gesturing with her hands. “You should make your own.”

And indeed Scott has sewn an intricate quilt of connections and opportunities in pursuing her passion for photography.

Starting at her high school in Omaha, Neb., Scott began taking classes in the development and technique of photography, but according to her twin brothers Steve and Tom Scott, she always had a knack for it.

“I have a lot of memories of her always trying to take photos of us at different locations,” Tom Scott, 20, says.  A sophomore psychology major at St. Louis University, Tom Scott recalls how Scott would drive him and his twin to interesting places in order to set up the perfect shot.

“She would take us to schools or parks just to take photos,” Tom Scott says.  “For our Father’s Day present, she made us dress up and we each wore signs [that said], ‘I love you, Dad.’ She took us to a park and got photos of us all.  She was always into using [photos] as presents.”

Once she graduated from high school, however, Scott’s educational path became a bit erratic, and she temporarily abandoned her hobby.

Enrolled as a philosophy major until her sophomore year at Lake Forest College in Chicago, Illin., Scott didn’t like the college and transferred to Colorado State University in 2002.

Scott took classes at CSU until she was a junior, when she realized her love for photography and dropped out of the university for the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif. She graduated from Brooks in 2008 with a degree in Professional Photography, then returned to CSU to complete a journalism degree.  She is set to graduate in May.

“I didn’t think she was ever going to graduate,” says Steve Scott, a 20-year-old sophomore exercise science major at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. Steve Scott said he was initially unsure whether his sister would achieve much success.

“She kept changing her mind,” Steve says. “I kind of thought she would end up screwing up because she left, but she came back with two bachelor’s degrees, a trip to Mount Everest working with National Geographic, [and] these internships with huge companies in a short period of time.  She’s had more than I probably will in 10 years.”

Armed with an unusual talent and fierce tenacity, Scott journeyed across the country in order to gain experience with some of the world’s most renowned photographers.   Her resume includes internships at the Mark Seliger Studio in New York City, as well as the Norman Jean Roy Studio in Los Angeles, where Scott sharpened her skills as a photographic assistant.

Both studios are regular contributors to Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, and Scott worked in the same space as legendary photographers Mario Testino, Annie Leibovitz and Patrick Demarchelier.

She also obtained career know-how from a 2009 internship with advertising powerhouse Crispin Porter and Bogusky in Boulder, a move that rounded out her already impressive knowledge of the industry.

“You really have to pick a specialization [in photography],” Scott says.  “[Now] I can do everything, so when I’m ready to specialize I’ll be ready to jump into it. I think I understand every part of the business.”

And it’s not that Scott is arrogant about her talents. According to her friend Heather Goodrich, 27, she just has a thorough understanding of who she is and what she can do.

“Steph is a really caring, thoughtful, precise and driven person,” says Goodrich, who is also the developmental advisor for College Avenue magazine and editor in chief of FS Life. “Steph’s work is real. No matter what she’s shooting she’s capturing the essence of what is being told. She is going to be really successful because she has incredible drive.  It’s insane how focused and driven she is.”

And sitting forward in her chair with her arms resting on the table, Scott does emanate a sense of order and directness.  Her light brown hair, striped with lighter streaks of blonde, is combed neatly into a thick ponytail that skims the middle of her back.  Her voice is low but her words are bold and quickly delivered, and she seems to catch every detail in the room with a glance from her sharp gray eyes – eyes that see a different view of the world which she translates from the lens of her Canon 5D camera.

“I love portrait work,” Scott says. “Getting to know people and seeing a side that they don’t normally express unless you have that intimate setting. Being able to create your own experience with people and express it is amazing.

“[And] the type of photography [that] can contribute toward a greater cause than enjoyment, [where] there’s more of a higher purpose to the work I’m doing. That would be ideal for me.”

It was this enthusiasm and work ethic that secured her the valuable internship positions and, ultimately, the pièce de résistance of her career so far: a six-week stint in the Himalayas documenting a National Geographic expedition with photographer David Breashears, whom she met while working in an outdoor retail store in Chicago.

Scott continued to e-mail Breashears about his work, and eventually he called her in the fall of 2009 and invited her to assist in his project.

“It was kind of agonizing because I was like, ‘s—, I’m so close to graduating, what do I do?’” Scott says.  “I went to all of my professors with the assumption that I wanted to let them know personally that I was going to have to drop out again and they were like ‘hey we’ll work with you.’  Everyone was so supportive and awesome.”

Scott arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Oct. 14 of 2009, loaded with 12 bags of camera equipment for the six-person team involved in the project.  Then Scott, Breashears, three Nepalese sherpas and a few Tibetan porters drove to Xangmu, China, and to the Rongbuk monastery, which is close to the north base camp of Mount Everest.

“I was a photo assistant, so basically I was documenting David documenting glaciers,” Scott says. “The project was taking match photography from 1920s and 1890s photographs, and based on GPS locations we took pictures from the same spots those explorers were, and showed change.

“There are only one-fourth of the glaciers left, so there’s a serious issue in the Himalayas glaciers. All of that water provides for five of the largest rivers in Asia, so for the people whose livelihoods depend on that water, it’s going to be a huge issue.”

After thoroughly photographing the mountain region from the north side, the team intended to explore another 8,000 meter peak close in proximity to Mount Everest, but their permits were denied and they returned to Mount Everest, this time documenting glacial lakes forming on the south side.

“We kind of orbited around [Mount Everest],” Scott says, pointing to photos of the mountain on her laptop.  “We did the circle from north to south base camp – it was a dream I always wanted.”

In living her dream, Scott had to operate outside of her comfort zone.

“It broadened my horizons as to what my limitations are physically and mentally,” Scott says.  “Hiking for eight hours and having your lungs feel completely raw and getting to your camp and then realizing that you still have to hike [for another] two hours up to the photo point and then work—it’s nuts.”

Scott’s friends and family expressed worry and excitement about her opportunity, but were confident in Scott’s ability to endure the difficult conditions she faced.

“I was really nervous for her, but she’s tough and I knew she could do it,” Tom says. “From hearing some of the experiences she had, I guess I should have been more worried about it but she’s a tough and strong person.”

Scott’s boyfriend, Kelly Adair, 25, had only been dating Scott for a few months when she left for Nepal.

“I was concerned,” says Adair, a University of Colorado in Boulder graduate. “We were early on in our relationship, so it made our relationship a lot stronger from the get-go because we would correspond as much as we could via e-mail. It made me realize what she was going through just by the way she was describing the things that she was doing.  I knew how high she was going and how it can be very dangerous to do that.”

And though she says she would take the trip again “in a heartbeat,” Scott says the expedition was “the biggest love/hate experience” she has ever had and that it took a severe toll on her health.

“I got altitude sickness one night where I had to breathe myself down in the tent,” Scott says.   “I had a massive migraine – it was pretty scary.  It was too high for helicopters so it was kind of a mental issue at that point.  [I had to] deal with it. Altitude deals with you in funny ways. It slows your thinking [and] it slows your breathing. I felt deficient in every possible way up there. People are not meant to be that high.”

Also affected by the extreme altitude were Scott’s eating and sleeping habits.  According to Scott, she didn’t get much of either.

“You don’t eat up there ‘cause you’re not hungry,” Scott says.  “It’s a matter of really monitoring what you eat and what you drink.  I didn’t sleep at all up there. You can’t really sleep until the early morning hours.  You just kind of toss and turn.”

Aside from losing about 12 pounds from her already diminutive frame, Scott also had to cope with severe illness during the latter portion of the trip.

“I got so sick—the sickest I’ve ever been,” she says.  “I couldn’t keep down fluids but I also couldn’t keep them in.  I [was] just expelling all of my water.  I had to take medicine to keep the medicine I needed down.”

Once the team returned from Everest, Scott was able to receive the medical attention she needed, and she spent another week in Nepal recovering and eating pizza from a local Italian restaurant.  She returned to the U.S. on Nov. 23, exhausted but satisfied with her adventure.

“I think learning my own limits was the thing that I took away from it,” Scott says. “Knowing that my limits are limitless if you set your mind to it [and that] if you have no other option, you really can do whatever you want. Not many people have the opportunity to realize that about themselves.”

Once she was back in Fort Collins, Scott had to return to her busy life, which included working as a photography editor for College Avenue magazine and completing the assignments she missed while away.  Scott currently lives in Boulder and commutes to class three to five times per week.

“To shoot for National Geographic and to go to Tibet and to climb Everest in and of itself – each separate thing is incredible,” Goodrich says.  “But for her to do all of those together in college during [her] senior year with capstone courses, she’s incredible.  She really can do everything. I don’t know how she manages it all.”

On top of juggling her schoolwork, internships, various photography jobs and outdoor activities with Adair, Scott also finds time to reinforce a strong relationship with her twin brothers.

She smiles when she receives a text from her brother Tom and murmurs, “Tommy.”

According to both brothers, Scott is the glue that holds their family unit together.

“Both of our parents have been married a couple of times each, so it is what you make of it,” Scott says, shrugging her shoulders. “You can be super maladjusted, or you can count on what you have, so we just make a point that the three of us do what we do and always stay that way, and then everything else can circle around that if that’s the case.”

Every year for the twins’ birthday, Scott and her brothers go to a different stadium to see a baseball game together.  Scott and Steve are Red Sox fans, while Tom prefers the Yankees.

“Every cool experience I’ve had has come directly or indirectly from her,” Tom says. “Out of everyone in my life, she’s probably the closest person to me.  She helped me a lot growing up and was always there when I needed to talk to someone.”

And talk she does. But after a 54-minute interview, Stephanie Scott hoists up her black shoulder bag and pushes chair in under the table.  And all 5 feet and 4 inches of her, that has focused a camera with the industry’s biggest names and climbed part way up the world’s highest mountain, turns to go.  She still has things to do.

Evan McCormick, 20, is a zoology major at Colorado State University.  In his freshman year of college, some of his friends invited him to go to an event put on by the student organization Not for Sale.  This event forever changed his direction in life.

McCormick learned in depth about human trafficking, which is the act of people being tricked and persuaded to leave their country – or forcibly taken – to work for someone without being paid.  In short, slavery.

With his blonde hair perfectly smoothed down on his head and his inviting tone of voice, he took this new challenge head on. 

At the event, three different types of human trafficking were stimulated, as if McCormick himself were a slave.  The people running the event treated all participants as if they were slaves of the sex industry, sweat shops or soldiers. 

McCormick knew this was not something he could blink away.

“My heart was just broken for it, so I was like, ‘I can’t just sit here and do nothing,’” McCormick said with passion in his eyes. “I have to do something about this.”

After this event, he enrolled in the Not for Sale Investigator’s Academy in San Francisco, which took place last summer.  The two-week course taught him how to research and document human trafficking. McCormick recalls this as an amazing experience.

“They taught us how to do the mapping system online and what we are looking for whenever we go out investigating this stuff,” McCormick said.  “Basically, anything there is to know about human trafficking they touched on.”

McCormick said he learned certain red flags to look for when doing investigations, such as a place with bars on the windows and possibly a camera out front.  The name of a place will often change, making advertisements an easy source of information.  Human trafficking areas are often disguised as massage parlors. 

As McCormick’s passion for promoting awareness to stop human trafficking grows, it is powered by a spiritual connection.

“I’m a Christian and God is the biggest part of my life,” McCormick said.  “That really plays into this passion about human trafficking – seeking justice and showing love and just loving everyone and everything.”

McCormick’s good friend of two years, Bruce Mayberry, 21, shares this deep connection with God. 

“God gives him the love he needs to love others,” Mayberry said.  “Faith is something that feeds his desire to be a part of Not for Sale – he gives himself over for it.”

As a child, McCormick was always exposed to religion because his father is a pastor.  With this career, his family moved around a lot. 

Born on Feb. 9, 1990 in the bay area of California, his father took a job in Indiana when McCormick was three. At the age of 10 the family moved to Arizona, and at 15 they moved back to the same area of California. 

Although moving around a lot as a child often bothers people, McCormick was not fazed by it.

“Looking back now, every area was perfect for the time period in my life,” McCormick said.

Through all the moving, McCormick established a strong faith in God, but it wasn’t until the summer before he left for college that he fully believed. 

For the past three summers, McCormick has gone on a weeklong houseboat trip with people from his church.  He had not planned on going again, until he found out there was one spot left on the trip and it had already been paid for. 

He took that as a sign that God wanted him to go on the trip, so he did.  McCormick knew that if he went, God would show him why he was supposed to go.

“I wrote out a prayer telling God that I expect him to show up that week and take over my life,” McCormick said. 

At the time, McCormick didn’t feel completely immersed in God at all times, which is what he wanted.   

During the trip, there was required solo time where attendees simply sat by themselves and read the Bible for three hours.  McCormick used this time to pray to God.

“Alright God, I’m just going to sit and listen and be in silence – I just want to hear your voice right now,” McCormick prayed.

Finally he heard the voice of God, telling him that he was going to talk to a girl on the trip named Ana tonight, and He wanted him to tell Ana that He loves her.  McCormick sat there for a while, confused and in awe.

He did not know much about Ana, so he wasn’t sure how God’s plan would work out. 

Sure enough, McCormick had an in-depth conversation that night with Ana.  She told him her life story, and most importantly, how she felt unloved.  She told him she didn’t feel like God hears her prayers and she didn’t think He loved her.

At this moment McCormick gave her God’s message, that He did love Ana.

“We just sat there in awe witnessing the miracle that just happened,” McCormick said.   “That’s exactly what she needed to hear and that’s exactly what I needed to know that God exists.  Since then my relationship with God has grown.”

Now McCormick feels God in everything he does in life, including stopping human trafficking.

“I couldn’t do this by myself,” McCormick said.

McCormick is going to Uganda this summer for four weeks to work with various projects involved with Not for Sale. 

“Our goal there is to go document all of those so we can have some on file to use for awareness,” McCormick said.

He will be investigating and documenting cases of human trafficking, working at a school being built for former child soldiers and helping construct an amphitheater so the community can come together using music. 

He stays motivated by knowing that everything he does could be to help one person better their lives.

“This could be for one slave to be freed, that’s why I do it,” McCormick said. 

McCormick’s girlfriend, Britny Beffort, 19, has known him for almost two years.  She is amazed by his drive to better the world and fully supports his trip to Uganda. 

She describes McCormick as caring, inviting and genuine.

“Evan has a heart for God,” Beffort said.  “After talking with him for five minutes you want to share your life story with him.” 

Beffort said he has a unique personality that makes him a perfect candidate for all that he does for human trafficking.

“A lot of what makes him unique is his heart for people whether his knows them or not,” Beffort said.

McCormick’s fantasy is to be in the presence of God, in heaven.  He feels he reaches close to this by being surrounded by nature.

McCormick enjoys playing the drums, guitar and ukulele.  He loves to rock climb and do anything involving nature. 

With the help of God, McCormick is motivated to change the lives of former slaves.  He is very involved in Not for Sale and his presence makes those around him feel at ease. 

“I love building relationships and having fun with people,” McCormick said. “To me, the only real things in life are God and relationships – that’s all that’s going to matter and it lasts eternally.”

This is where urban planning comes in. By laying out the space and how energy will be used, a more efficient city flourishes. Currently, there is an opportunity for planners to sustain rather than simply use vital environmental resources for energy.

Urban development is the planning of high population areas and cities. It also encompasses how buildings are located in respect to each other, and how building attributes can be sustainable, according to Delwin Benson, a professor in the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology and an extension wildlife specialist.

Sustainability, on the other hand, is how a resource is used so it is not depleted or permanently damaged, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.

Benson explained that there is a disconnect between the people living in urban centers and the environment – living in an urban setting means we don’t see the source of our energy or the impact it has on the environment.

“In the old days, you were living on the farm and you had a wood stove. You knew that you had to cut the wood to put in the stove to heat the house to make it warm,” Benson said. “Now all you have to do is turn up the thermostat. You don’t know whether it’s gas and where the gas comes from, or maybe its electric heat – where does electricity come from?

Urban people in urban development centers are [detached] from sustainability. They may not know where it comes from and they may not know how to vote wisely about it because they are so far removed.”

David Rigirozzi, who works for the Denver regional office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as the field environmental officer, said that urban planning dates back to World War II, when more people moved into suburbs. As commerce and retail centers began to shift away from large cities such as Denver, HUD’s attention has been drawn to more “blighted” areas.

“You have two options with sites like that – you can just let them be derelict forever, or you can turn them into a park,” Rigirozzi said. “But HUD’s idea is [to] go for a more concentrated plan because the more concentrated you get, the more efficient use of energy.”

HUD’s current model across cities is to fund mixed-use clean up projects where commercial and residential retail areas can be more affordable and sustainable.

The Sustainable Communities Initiative, a $100 million federal program started in 2009, joins the forces of HUD and the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve upon “housing, transportation, economic development and sustainability in urban planning efforts,” according the HUD Web site.

Rigirozzi explained HUD is also creating a new office for sustainablity.

“It is kind of just nature taking its course – a lot of it, to me personally, stems from the fact that the United States is an affluent country in the world and this takes a lot of money,” he explained. “We expect or want these things to happen. Sustainability costs more money – 50 years ago there was no technology.”

Rigirozzi is optimistic about current technologies, but explained there is a risk if operation and maintenance costs get too high.

“The companion to sustainability is recycling – we have to have a convenient system so we are not turning a lot of these high-tech systems into hazardous waste,” he added.

And part of this is educating the masses. Aside from spreading information gathered by the university, Benson seeks out people and custom-tailors solutions to them. One goal for a more sustainable community is “to convince people that they want to do things in a sustainable way.”

Sustainability is not just an environmental issue. It is also influenced by the economy, society and people, Benson added.

“It is not only how you build a building, how you find the structure for people, but [it is also] teaching people proper behaviors,” Benson said. He added that social sustainability can be just little things, such as turning off the lights and not running the water while brushing your teeth.

April Wackerman is a firm believer that sustainability requires people to work together. Wackerman is a project manager with the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University. Through her work as a green consultant, Wackerman helps builders get Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED,“  certification for using resources wisely, along with providing a healthy space for occupants.

“In the past few decades, the buildings are a lot less efficient and decrease in quality of materials, so other components have affected the indoor environmental quality,” she said. “There is a social impact as well, such as having natural lighting versus manufactured. It is not just about energy; it is about the health and well-being of the people that occupy and build the buildings.”

Although the trend of sustainability in urban planning is fairly new, Benson argues that people have been practicing sustainability for a long time – such as finding efficient ways to grow crops, which has taught people how to use the environment so it won’t deplete itself over time.

Benson believes sustainability is a give-and-take relationship because everything is intricately connected in multiple-use environments.

“A balance should be found first in how the earth works, and we don’t want to do something that destroys the functions of the earth,” he said. “We should decide to never let our earth get any worse off than what it is now and hopefully do what you can to make it better. If we are to demand energy, we have to accept some trade-offs to get it.”

Brian Dunbar held the same philosphy in finding ways to make the earth better. Dunbar, a professor in the Department of Construction Management and the executive director for IBE, coordinates with graduate students, CSU faculty and off-campus professionals to work on green building and sustainable development.

“An entire neighborhood or city can be sustainable,” said Dunbar, who has a new innovative project in the works that will not only be sustainable, but will also create “regenerative living environments.”

Known as LENSES, or Living, Environment, Natural, Social and Economic Systems, Dunbar and his research team are creating a guiding framework that they are hope will be implemented by projects in Northern Colorado, and eventually across the country and around the world. Dunbar explained how this is the next step in sustainability.

“Green building has done a good job of showing we can harm the planet less. The next generation of development and building will ideally not just use less, but do good for the planet,” he explained. “What if there was a building that actually had a positive footprint? What if it creates more energy than it uses?”

Both Dunbar and Benson hold a positive outlook for the future of sustainability and, one day, regenerative buildings. Benson said the best way to do so should start here, at CSU.

“We are an institution of higher learning, we should experiment here,” he declared. “Let’s not save it for somebody else to build – let’s be entrepreneurs.”

Wackerman couldn’t agree more and champions personal, intimate involvement in every building project.

“Urban development has a real opportunity to think about ways to draw people to a community and where people want to live,” she said. “It’s a reconnecting.”

His head explores his cache of words,

too heated with all these college people packed in,

seated in the Bean Cycle and weak knees ensue, dude.

Nostrils tingle as coffee beans crumble and people mingle,

humbled by the last poet’s punch line about political times,

while intricate art straight from aching hearts hangs inside wall frames.

And Brent Adams is too cool to fumble over any broken words,

his verbs in action, sparking flames fueled by reactions from fans,

new-comers, new experiences.

But Adams, slipping rhymes into people’s minds through the mic,

Simply sees it to unite by turning writing into insight,

his right mind transforms his left views to something new,

something the community can use—

And as the last lines fall off his lightning quick lips, his words cease.

The crowd pleases him with screams of applause, oohs and ahs.

This is the scene of the Fort Collins Poetry Slam at the Bean Cycle. This is where people unite on the first Friday of every month to see these poets perform. Language is transcended and transformed into art, and people come to freely express their voice.

Brent Adams, 24, is a Colorado State University graduate student, majoring in ethnic studies, and he has written poetry since middle school.

“People feel small and insignificant in addressing issues in the world,” Adams says. “If you’re just one person in a sea of violence, thinking about these problems, it can wear you down. But poetry offers the community a chance to hear voices that normally can’t be heard.”

Adams has not only found a way to express his thoughts through poetry, but he has found it to be empowering. While working with eighth grade kids at the Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Center in Fort Collins, Adams says that sometimes he doesn’t know if what he does really helps; thus, why he writes poetry.

“If we can get together and show that more of us care, it makes me feel like we do have power in the community,” Adams says. “Poetry gives me a sense of efficacy.”

Efficacy, to project and definitively speak to minds

that feel they to find and communicate thoughts,

and to connect in an authentic way,

Where the oppressed are heard,

And voices are found.

Kimberly “Infinite” Ford, a junior ethnic studies major, also finds her voice through poetry.

“I think [slam poetry] is a great way to communicate thoughts,” she says. “People who are not heard in political arenas, such as everyday people like us, are given a chance to be heard through poetry.”

Along with Adams, Ford performs at the poetry slam in early April. Women’s rights. Removing distrust in people. Abandonment. These are the issues that strike a cord when voiced through her spoken word. She wants people to listen, and wants to hear others as well.

“We have equal respect for each other’s words,” she says, alluding to the poetry slam. “Whether it’s the audience or the other poets, it creates a feeling of community when people are able to freely and openly express their voice.”

Sasha Steensen, a CSU assistant English professor, is fond of poetry, but feels that the poetic voice can get lost in the sea of technology.

“There are so many demands upon our attention,” she says. “You’ve got Internet, e-mail, billboards — an information overload. Poetry presents and looks at these things from different angles and helps us decide how to process these things as a culture and as individuals.”

She describes language as a “way to communicate a particular meaning.” If something needs to be described or communicated, we use words to symbolize that particular feeling or object. But with poetry, a poem is an object itself, and the reader has to engage with how the words sound and look in relation to each other, rather than each individual meaning.

“Try to think without using language and usually it comes in immediately to label whatever it is we are thinking about,” she says. “Poetry, on the other hand, requires a certain kind of engagement and asks the reader or listener to be critical and pay attention.”

Steensen always tries to accept an invitation to read, and enjoys how the performance enhances the poetry. She says that the performance can expand the possibilities of poetry for the listener.

This is where Larry Holgerson comes in to play…on words, that is.

Holgerson, who is known as the “slam master” or “booger,” is a well-known face in the slam poetry world. Holgerson is also the person responsible for organizing the slam at the Bean Cycle and has been doing so for the last five years.

“We always fill up [the Bean Cycle], and people may have to sit on the floor,” Holgerson says. “When those 16- and 17-year-olds come in, along with the college kids, and speak their truths, they can say something that simply devastates you. They’ve been thrown a world of crap, and find a way to speak through it all. Their day to day dealings, concepts and aggressions are portrayed through their poetry.”

Aggression, curved.

Politics, diverge.

Human rights, for sure.

Expression, through verbs.

Action, reaction, thinking, writing, stinging, fighting and overall uniting,

All because of the spoken word.

Sounds absurd?

Yes, but still it occurs,

and all we want is our voices heard.

We are poetry. We are poetic. We are people. But most of all, we are.

“It doesn’t take a degree, employment, permission [to write poetry],” Adams says. “You just need guts.”

“It stems from oppressed communication, oppressed voices,” Ford says.

“We don’t have any engagement with the world that doesn’t involve language,” Steensen adds.

“Culture is an operating system and we need the one in Fort Collins to be heard and feel eloquent about the way we do it,” Holgerson says.

They all speak, hear, listen, voice their opinions and lead individual lives. They all live in Fort Collins and involve themselves in the community. They all have something to say about poetry. And if you listen very closely, you might catch the meaning behind their spoken words. This is the motion of poetry, deep in the heart of Fort Collins.

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

It’s not the kind of place you can just wander into. The off-white stucco building has a vacant feel and no sign out front. The entrance opens into an empty hallway that is just wide enough for one person, and zigzags a few times before ending at the back of the building. Their door is on the right.

The address and phone number of the shop cannot be found anywhere online or in the yellow pages. There is an e-mail contact on the Web site, but the physical location of the business is off the grid. Panda Bicycles is creating a new trend that is on the move.

Colorado State University alumni Jacob Castillo and John McKinney are literally “growing bikes” by hand-making frames out of bamboo. McKinney was inspired by a pre-graduation trip to Mexico where he used bamboo as a building material.

According to green-ecoliving.com, bamboo is a fast-growing, eco-friendly renewable material that is strong like traditional steel frames, but is much lighter and more flexible, making it ideal for bicycles.

Panda Bicycles launched their first line in September 2009 that consisted of 25 limited-edition bikes with a unique steel-lug design that is patent-pending. Selling for $1,050 a piece, there are two models: The One and The Natural.

“The One is a one-speed bike designed for commuters,” Castillo said. “The Natural is also designed for ‘commuter functionality’ but has a more retro style.”

But why buy a bamboo bike? What makes them recreationally advantageous over other types of bikes?

“The frame quality is comparable, if not better than steel or aluminum,” said Chris Olson, a bamboo bike owner. “My bike is very smooth, quiet and strong.”

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

Caley Fretz, a junior political science major and the president of the Ram’s Cycling club, has also ridden a bamboo bike and said, “The ride was comfortable, but felt like any other bike.”

However, JC Coughlin, a sophomore mechanical engineering major and former cycling competitor, questioned the durability of bamboo.

“I wouldn’t pay that much money for a bamboo bike because I don’t think it could withstand the elements like steel can,” Coughlin said. “I feel like the bamboo would crack and warp eventually.”

To prevent the bamboo from deteriorating, Panda Bicycles uses a three-step process that consists of a flame treatment to dry out the bamboo, stain application and polyurethane application to seal it from weather.

Senior mechanical engineering majors Peter Lund, Matt Deault, Adam Lum and Matt Cuff decided to work with Panda to test the durability of a bamboo bicycle as their capstone project.

Lund, Deault, Lum and Cuff began working on the project in August 2009 and are currently in the testing phase. They began by riding Panda’s original bamboo bike design, which “felt like a noodle because it was shaking so much,” Lund said. He said the design quality of Panda’s bikes has changed drastically since the first model – the current frame is stronger and a higher quality.

The design team made modifications to the frame’s design and sent it to be tested at the Orthopedic Bioengineering Research Laboratory at CSU.

The frame underwent three tests established by the American Society for Testing and Materials that measured its structural durability:

Photo by Garrett Mynatt

- horizontal fatigue test: frame compression is measured after the bike endures 100,000 cycles with 600 Newtons (134.8 pounds) of horizontally applied weight

- vertical fatigue test: 1200 Newtons (270 pounds) of weight is applied vertically while the bike endures 50,000 cycles

- an impact test

The frame passed all three tests, so Panda Bicycles will receive their official ASTM certificate, proving that their design meets consumer reliability standards.

Castillo and McKinney plan on releasing their 2010 models this spring and since Panda Bicycles is steadily gaining popularity, this off-the-grid business is finding a way of putting itself on the map. In addition to a local clientele they have had customers in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, California and Arizona.

“The community has been great,” Deault said. “There’s been a lot of support. Fort Collins is a great place to [start selling bamboo bikes] because of its bike culture.”

Photo by Stephanie Scott

Last December during finals week, Helen went on a “study bender.”

Like she does often when it comes down to crunch time, Helen, then a junior interior design major, took Adderall to help her make it through a mountain of stress-inducing projects.

“When you take Adderall, it makes it so you’re really focused on what you’re doing,” she says. Coffee doesn’t help – it doesn’t make her concentrate, only stay awake. “If I’ve taken Adderall, I can turn on my iPod and get in the zone.”

But the bender turned into a marathon.

After four days and no sleep, Helen started to feel the side effects. When her jaw locked up, she chewed gum. An occasional cigarette break dampened her shakes for a little, but they never disappeared. Eventually, she can’t remember when, she passed a threshold.

“At that point, I was hallucinating and not there. That’s really unhealthy and I wouldn’t recommend it,” she says. “If I were a normal person, I would be concerned.”

A few months later during mid-terms, Helen went on another bender, taking at least one time-release pill – which can keep her awake for up to 11 hours at a time – every day for three weeks. She recently transferred from Colorado State University to Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, but chose to remain anonymous because she uses Adderall without a prescription.

“I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to Adderall because I don’t take it on a daily basis,” she says, mentioning that she only buys and keeps 2 to 3 pills at a time. “I just take one when I need to study. It’s like steroids.”

And Helen is not alone.

Adderall, a stimulant used to treat Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, is breaking the stereotype that drug abuse is always recreational. A 2008 study by the National Institute of Drug Abuse looked at over 35 years of drug trends and found college students are twice as likely to abuse prescription stimulants as their peers outside of college.

“I believe prescription drugs can be very dangerous and there’s a reason they are controlled,” says Mari Strombom, the acting director of residence life at CSU. “It concerns me when people are using prescription drugs to self-medicate. I believe there is the potential for future harm.”

Not only is Adderall abuse seen as acceptable, but the pills are also more readily available than ever. The FDA estimates around 30 million Adderall prescriptions were written in the U.S. between 1999 and 2003, more than any other country.

Research suggests that Adderall abuse is a cultural phenomenon. A 2005 report in the journal “Addiction” found connections between a high-stress college environment and Adderall abuse. At institutions with strict admissions standards, such as Ivy League schools, the usage rate was as high as 25 percent – a number that continues to grow.

Beyond Adderall and the Study Hall

Adderall is just one aspect of the legal drug culture. Prescription drug abuse is a growing trend across college campuses and the United States as a whole. According to the 2009 National Collegiate Health Assessment, an annual survey of over 80,000 college students, nearly 13 percent of students reported that they abused prescription drugs, the third most commonly used substances behind alcohol and marijuana.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase [in prescription drug abuse] in the past 10 years,” says Jim Weber, director of the DAY Program, a substance abuse counseling program at CSU. “It’s much more acceptable to this current generation.”

From 1999 to 2004, the number of young adults aged 15 to 24 who died from unintentional overdose nearly doubled, according to a 2007 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the drugs used, most were prescription painkillers like OxyContin – heroin’s legal equivalent – which Weber claims can be the most addictive.

“Its perceived safety is equal to risk,” Weber says. “Culturally, there’s this divide. We don’t see pills as bad. This contributes to this false sense of safety and security that says ‘It’s safe because a doctor gave it to me.’”

Along with depressants like Xanax, stimulants and painkillers make up a trifecta of the most highly abused prescriptions. Adderall and OxyContin are both classified as schedule II narcotics by the Drug Enforcement Administration, sharing a place alongside cocaine and methamphetamine.

Despite the numbers, education and research efforts targeting college students have been few and far between. The NCHA only recently included specific questions about prescriptions – much as they have done with alcohol and marijuana since the survey began in 2000 – making it difficult to draw any broad, long-term conclusions about student abuse.

After participating since 2003, CSU stopped giving the NCHA survey to everyone but student athletes in the spring of 2008 – the same semester prescription drug questions were introduced.

“We just wanted behavioral data about our students,” says Debra Morris, a health educator with the CSU Health Network who helped administer the survey. “Why are prescription drugs not included? I just don’t know. So many students come to university with prescription drugs, and other people will want to use them to stay awake longer. So yes, I think it’s a concern.”

The Other Side of Prescription Addiction

Eric Lintz, a detective with the CSU Police Department and Northern Colorado Drug Task Force, claims that even at the law enforcement level, prescription drugs are not a hot topic.

“It’s not fancy, it’s not glamorous,” Lintz says. “Someone in the office says, “I’m going to get a guy with three grams of coke,’ compared to ‘I’m going to buy three grams of pills.’ It’s not the same. It’s not sexy.”

In the past twelve months, Lintz claims that around a dozen college-aged students were arrested for selling heroin to undercover officers in Northern Colorado. Heroin is a cheap alternative to the more expensive prescription opioids.

“These kids at one time were majoring in school,” Lintz says. “But as they drop out they still have to eat and still have to live, so they go to the only thing they know. And that’s selling drugs.”

The 2005 “Addiction” study adds weight to Lintz’s experience. It found that students who abused prescription stimulants were 20 times more likely to use cocaine and 10 times more likely to use marijuana.

“If you’re doing something that doesn’t require brain power but just focus, my friends and I will smoke weed,” Helen admits, saying that marijuana is better than cigarettes for counteracting the side effects of Adderall. In addition, she has taken Xanax, ecstasy, Ambien and acid.

Despite its perceived prevalence on a college campus, prescription drug abuse at CSU is hardly documented. David McKelfresh, the executive director of assessment and research for the division of student affairs, and Pam McCracken, the communications director for the CSU Health Network, both say the university is not collecting data on prescription drug abuse by CSU students.

“When it comes to feeding the mind or feeding the addiction, the addiction wins,” Lintz believes.

For now, Weber is the main point of contact for students who have struggled with abuse. A point he stresses to students is that taking drugs without a prescription is a felony, no matter how they are taken or sold.

“They’re safe if used in accordance with how they’re prescribed,” Lintz says. Like several officials, he relates prescription drug education efforts to alcohol in the wake of Sam Spady’s death in 2004 – as reactionary. “I think the problem is bigger than even law enforcement recognizes. I hope it doesn’t take someone OD’ing for the community to wake up to the problem.”

When asked if she could make it through finals without the help of Adderall, Helen hesitates.

“None of it’s safe, obviously, but when I take it I know I’m not going to die,” she says. “Everything other than Adderall I take recreationally. And I don’t do that often. I could do finals week [without it], but why would I want to? It would be counter-productive.”

Small blotches of text dot the page and the ink bleeds slightly. Words are formed meticulously. You struggle to precisely spell each word and shape each sentence, referring back to your outline every so often.

As the tab dings and releases, the beginning of the next sentence is marked by the orange of the type guide.

As you review your masterpiece, you notice an error, two-thirds down the page. You rip the paper out to begin typing again – what other choice do you have?

This was reality for writers using a typewriter before the invention of the computer, before simple creation and before immediate revision.

“[I make my students] work out of the book,” says Deanne Gilman, a senior history major and teacher of ACT prep for the Poudre and St. Raine school districts, among others. “Writing by hand, students are forced to interact with the page.”

However, in a technology-driven world, the original definition of literacy no longer applies. A quick outline on paper and the primal, physical act of writing have changed.

Rather than a simple ability to read and write, “literacy” must now shape and develop to encompass new forms of writing, new ways to communicate and a new influx of information into the previously simple world of print.

Mike Palmquist, associate vice provost for The Institute for Learning and Teaching at Colorado State University, says the belief that technology is ruining literacy and the process of writing is a myth.

“[People] have an idea of this glorious past before the Internet,” Palmquist says. “But before that it was television, it was radio, it was reading horrible dime novels in the 1920s. But if you look at the writing of a fourth, eighth or twelfth grader, they write like a fourth, eighth or twelfth grader. People have been writing badly for a long time.”

With the invention of the computer, writing processes have been affected, especially revision. Palmquist says there is a lack of knowledge about where education was before technology; some may be blaming technology for the perceived lack of literacy now.

“I began writing on a computer in 1981,” Palmquist says. “I was typing a novel in college [on a typewriter] and if I made one mistake, I’d have to retype the whole page. But for revision [technology has] made a huge difference.”

But Gilman combats this revision process, claiming that technology may be harming the ability to revise because we “don’t have to be accountable for our mistakes. [Spell check] fixes things, but we don’t understand how it’s a problem.”

When teaching the process of writing, elementary school students begin pen to paper, planning with outlines and notes. But they are still required to learn the actual process of writing as well as the basics of grammar and spelling.

In the “Past and Present of the Verbs to Read and to Write,” Emilia Ferreiro writes, “Technology in and of itself will not simplify the cognitive difficulties of the process of learning to read and write.”

Evolving from the paper outline, the writing process has developed into typing immediately and returning to revise.

“As soon as you start writing, the planning is over,” Palmquist says.

However, Gilman says, “The physical connection [between pen and paper] drives [the writing process] home. Writing it themselves, writing with their hands, makes them connect easier.”

The support system of spell check is nice to have since it catches initial grammar and spelling mistakes, Gilman says.

“But you can’t sit next to a computer and gain from it,” she says. “You still have to learn how to use it appropriately.”

The implementation of word processors may also affect the product of writing, as writers may rely too much on spell check to catch mistakes that those using typewriters may have caught and fixed before creation.

“On my own computer, I turn off the grammar functions,” says Tobi Jacobi, co-director of the Community Literacy Center in Fort Collins. “Spell check is not always right and Dictionary.com is not the end all, be all.”

Palmquist says technologies can be seen as a positive influx, helpful for teaching or at least catching the initial mistakes.

“I don’t know that people are losing the ability to spell,” Palmquist says. “It may even be getting better because of the tools.”

Beyond spell check or word processors, the Internet has been changing information gathering rather than just spelling. A lot of options are available online, allowing writers to access information immediately rather than waiting days for the return of a library book. But with this access comes responsibility in how writing is done and how it may be perceived.

“Everything is a more public forum,” Jacobi says. “[Writers] have to think about audience and form more because it’s public – not just for the classroom.”

Jacobi also emphasizes how access has expanded, how writers can post research that can then be cross-referenced immediately.

The Internet’s amount of information has also changed reading practices as information is being presented differently.

“Reading is quicker in chunks,” Palmquist says. “There is anecdotal evidence that people spend less time reading extended articles, instead they’re scanning information. In a news article on the Web there are links now.”

Students can access some textbooks online, while classrooms and class discussions can be held in chat rooms, such as the chat function on RamCT at CSU.

“The Internet has expanded our forms of literacy,” says Pember Hedger, a junior health and exercise science major. “I don’t read books – I don’t like them. But I don’t like reading on a computer so I print everything out.”

But Jacobi reminds us that the ease of access to these materials online comes with the responsibility to be aware of where the information comes from.

“There are more mature uses of literacy practices [now], and technology is enabling some of that,” Jacobi says. “But we still have to check the origins of sources we don’t know – and Google doesn’t take us all the places we need to go.”